Mozilla pkix error key pinning failure

Hi,

I’m not able to access https://pixabay.com/ as I get the message above (question bar) showing. Having checked out Q&A I tried deleting the cert8.db file then re-starting Mozilla, no joy. I am a bit reluctant to do a refresh as I’m unsure how it would affect my system? I am not that computer literate! I did do an SSL check & both their server & info bar url came back as A+.

Around the same time I now also can’t access https://personofinterestdiscussion.com/ I did an SSL check & that came up with vulnerabiities. (I made a note of some if needed.) Their overall safety rating is F — grade capped to C . I haven’t made any changes to my laptop lately (Windows 7) & haven’t had problems accessing either site until a couple of days ago & I just don’t know what to do to get back onto both. I have anti virus, anti spyware, anti malware etc installed with no problems, also Mozilla’s website protection. I scan my laptop daily. This has came on so suddenly & I really want to get back onto both sites,
so any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi FredMcD,

thanks for replying & for the links. I get MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_KEY_PINNING_FAILURE for Pixabay & for the PoI forum, I get this …

Your connection is not secure

The owner of personofinterestdiscussion.com has configured their web site improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this web site.

I did already check the clock/ime zone etc but all is ok. Security besides Mozilla & system is AVG, Malwarebytes, AOL spyware .. I have had these programmes for some time with no problems until now!

It looks like a certificate issue. Try this;

You may have corrupt cert8.db file.
cert8.db stores all your security certificate settings

Type about:support in the address bar and press enter.

Under the page logo on the left side, you will see Application Basics.
Under this find Profile Folder. To its right press the button
Show Folder. This will open your file browser to the current
Firefox profile. Now Close Firefox.

Locate the above file. Then rename or delete it. Restart Firefox.

Hi FredMcD …

I did what you suggested & deleted the file, restarted, but I still can’t access either site & checking the files again, cert8.db file is back! I just deleted it, it went into the bin which I emptied!

Firefox will create new files when needed, including the cert8.db file.
I called for more help.

Ah, so it’s made a new file, ok! I thought I was going mad! Thanks so much for your help.

One thing you should not forget now is to empty the browser cache. Clear every instance of the affected websites in History using Show All History, and also choose History > Clear Recent History where you can select cache, cookies, etc. You may need to disable and enable SSL scanning or protocol filtering in your antivirus product as well. Finally, revisit or reload the pages using Ctrl+F5.

Изменено 12 ноября 2016 г., 16:13:33 -0800 teammachine

If you wrote what AV product you use, I could and have would. 

Does the How to troubleshoot security error codes on secure websites support article mention your product? Most likely, you should disable and in some cases re-enable the (or a similar) feature.

The Pol forum page contains mixed content so that may be the reason at this point, though it should still display properly.

Sorry Tonnes,

I have AVG Internet Security product version 2015.0.6201

(I don’t have the listed Avast, Bitdefender, Bullguard, ESET, Kaspersky)

I also have AOL Superanti-spyware version 6.0.1204
Malwarebytes Anti Malware version 2.2.1.1043
Malwarebytes Anti-exploit version 1.9.1.1235

Thanks

Thanks FredMcD …

I’ll do that tomorrow, it’s getting late here (UK) so I’ll report back tomorrow, probably evening, my time.

Thanks to you & Tonnes for your help. 

Good night. 

You’re welcome and good night/morning. 

Apparently AVG isn’t able to scan SSL connections so that would be no issue.

You could however check and update exclusions in Malwarebytes Anti-exploit if needed, or uninstall it entirely. For one, I don’t trust it, reading back some reports; another thing is you should never use more than one security product (at least with the same purpose/features) on one system. Can you uninstall it and see what happens?

Изменено 13 ноября 2016 г., 10:39:00 -0800 teammachine

FredMcD … I tried starting the computer in safe mode and (probably me!) it went into repair mode instead, FF 25 minutes later I finally got a message saying it couldn’t repair automatically ! re-started, tried again but still no PoI forum access.

Tonnes … I checked & I’ve paid for both Malwarebytes programmes!
So, ?!? (I have had PUP secured by M & malicious virus secured by AVG at different times.)

I might try & contact the owners of the PoI site, see if anyone else is having problems. Their SSL server test reported vulnerabilities & their rating was poor- grade capped to C overall F.

If I do the Firefox refresh, how will it affect any programmes installed?

Thanks to both of you for your continued help & patience. I’ll try & return later, if not, tomorrow. 

If I do the Firefox refresh, how will it affect any programmes installed?

Normally installed programs run independent from each other.
Programs written by the same programmers may share common files.
And there are also plugins, like flash.

Hmm… I typed a piece of text but think it’s best if you try this first:

1. Visit this page. Are both links in the Support column green? Do some more testing if you like (I think you do). 
2. Open your profile folder: go to Help > Troubleshooting Information or about:support and click Show folder.
3. Close Firefox.
4. Move the file SiteSecurityServiceState.txt out of the profile folder to another place.
5. Retry https://personofinterestdiscussion.com/

Выбранное решение

Изменено 14 ноября 2016 г., 10:37:36 -0800 teammachine

That was very good work. Well done.
Please flag your last post as Solved Problem so others will know.

No problem, as long as you keep reading and follow suggestions. 

Important to know: did you try the steps above (delete the file) before what you wrote above? If not, what changed things so you could add an exception today using Advanced, or was it possible earlier? (I thought you weren’t able to.)

The grey padlock with an orange/yellow exclamation mark is fine for this page as it contains mixed content as described in the How do I tell if my connection to a website is secure? article. However, you should not need to add an exception for this website, as the fault is at your end, not theirs, so I think you haven’t tried the steps.

In that case, if you have added a permanent exception by leaving the checkmark next to Permanently store this exception, could you remove it and try the steps?

First, open Options > Advanced > Certificates > View Certificates > Servers tab — you’ll probably find the website under The USERTRUST network, where you can delete it. Then retry the page so you should see the error again (you may need to reload using Ctrl-F5 and restart Firefox), then close Firefox, delete the file and retry.